Article - High School Sports Scene

Scott Keyes

Sports Scene

Lexi Gussert had to feel like she was carrying the whole state of Michigan on her shoulders.

Well, maybe not the whole state, but at least part of it.

After her 43-point effort gave Forest Park the victory over Posen in the state quarterfinal round on March 11, Gussert traveled with her team and friends to Detroit the next day to accept the 2014 Miss Basketball trophy. A day later she was playing in the Class D semifinal against Athens.

Forest Park defeated Athens to set up a Class D state final matchup against Sacred Heart Academy.

With a perfect season on the line, Forest Park was stunned by a pesky Sacred Heart team, 56-53.

Gussert took to her Facebook page after the loss and gave a heartfelt apology to all of the followers who supported her over the last four years.

“Not how we wanted it to end, and it will kill me for some time,” she wrote. “But this team did everything they could today, and I couldn’t be more happy to share these experiences with them. Huge learning experience for me, but hope to see some of you at State next year. Lastly, it is easy to say I will greatly miss playing at Forest Park with these amazing girls. Crystal falls, and the whole UP, we love you and thank you.”

Sacred Heart clamped down on defense late in the game to secure the victory.

Gussert’s free throw with 2:42 to play put Forest Park up 50-42, but the Trojans didn’t score again until Gussert’s long three pointer with 3.7 seconds remaining. By then, Sacred Heart had closed out the game on a 16-4 run, and Gussert put the blame on herself.

“The shots didn’t fall, mine definitely,” she said. “My team did everything they could possible. I just feel really bad because I didn’t finish well. The pressure was tough, but personally, I still think I had really good looks, and I just couldn’t finish today.”

Gussert, a two-time Class C Player of the Year, will leave Crystal Falls as one of the best players to ever have played in the Upper Peninsula.

She averaged about 30 points per game this season, surpassed the 2,000-point plateau in her fourth game, and became the all-time leading scorer — boy or girl — in the history of the Upper Peninsula.

With more than 2,500 career points, Gussert will finish her prep career among the top five scorers in state history.

Gussert, who also plays volleyball and golf, had seven triple-doubles this season and averaged 12 rebounds, 7.7 assists, and 3.9 steals per game.

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Sports Scene’s 2013-14 Boys’ Basketball Capsules

Eric Davis, Arthur Hill High School, Player of The Year

Eric Davis is one of the top basketball players in the country. He is listed as the country’s No. 8 shooting guard for the Class of 2015, according to Scout.com, and is 28th on ESPN’s Top 60 for national recruiting. He already holds a dozen or more offers from major Division I programs, including Michigan, Michigan State, and Iowa State, and he has another year of high school eligibility left. He averaged 27 points, five rebounds, four assists, and three steals this season.

Keyon Addison, Saginaw High School

One of the top players to wear a Trojans uniform. Guided Saginaw to a pair of victories over Arthur Hill, including an opening round district win. Headed to Ferris State University to play football.

Jaleel Hogan, Mt. Pleasant High School

Led the Oilers to the Class A semifinal before losing to Muskegon 63-47. In the defeat, led the Oilers with 14 points and 10 rebounds and went 4 of 13 from the floor and 6 of 9 from the free throw line. For the season, averaged 17 points and close to 10 rebounds a game for the Oilers, who finished the season 22-5. Headed to University of Detroit Mercy in the fall.

Nick Spitzley, Pewamo-Westphalia High School

Guided the Pirates to the Class C title game against Detroit Consortium. Came up big when it counted in victories over defending Class C Champion Beecher in the quarterfinal and over Muskegon Heights in the semifinal. Hit the game-winning shot against Beecher. AP Class C all-state selection. Will play basketball at Grand Valley State University.

Kevin Gamble, Sacred Heart Academy

Led Sacred Heart with 15 points and 9 rebounds. Helped lead his team into the Class D quarterfinal before losing to Frankfort.

Sports Scene 2013-14 Boys’ Basketball Dream Team

Eric Davis, Saginaw Arthur Hill, 6’4″, junior

Keyon Addison, Saginaw, 6’0″, senior

Jaleel Hogan, Mt. Pleasant, 6’7″, senior

Nick Spitzley, Pewamo-Westphalia, 6’2″, senior

Kevin Gamble, Sacred Heart, 6’6″, senior

Sixth Man

Don’ Quall Jackson, Holt, 5’10”, senior

Coach

Dan Schell, Mt. Pleasant

Second Team

Cameron Morse, Carman-Ainsworth, 6’1″, senior

Algevon Eichelberger, Saginaw, 6’7″, sophomore

Evan Marquardt, Midland Dow, 6’6″, senior

Malik Taylor, Montrose, 6’2″, senior

Tony Poljan, Lansing Catholic, 6’7″, sophomore

Third Team

Brian Bowen, Arthur Hill, 6’6″, freshman

Jaire Grayer, Flint Southwestern, 6’5″, junior

Amariontez Ivory, Beecher, 6’2″, senior

Austin Levan, Millington, 6’2″, junior

DeQuandre Dentmond, Lansing Eastern, 6’7″, senior

Honorable Mention

Justice Green, Carman-Ainsworth; Evan Marquardt, Midland Dow; Will Williams, Midland; Chauncey Bryant, Clio; Jake Daniels, Holly; Marquavian Stephens, Swartz Creek; Marcus Moore, Waverly; Michael Fomby, Waverly; Doug Bradfield, Mason; Cassell Jones, Grand Ledge; Connor Bluhm, John Glenn; Derrek Clyde, John Glenn; Dylan Carl, Alma; Henry Speight, Carrollton; Deonte Hopkins, Flint Northwestern; Austin Gregory, Ionia; Zac Gustafson, Portland; Spencer Johnston, Beaverton; Erik Maxwell, Beaverton; Jake Ham, Meridian; Kevin Sheibert, Meridian; Cody Peyok, Reese; DeWayne McKinney, Vestaburg; Keegan Giles, Breckenridge; Grant Gage, Carson City-Crystal; Ryan Tilmann, Beal City; Jarid Walton, Coleman; Ethan Apsey, Hemlock; Brad Fleishmann, Hemlock; Josh Appold, Valley Lutheran; Ryan Appold, Valley Lutheran; Jamil Demps, Hamady; Simeun McGee, International Academy of Flint; Lane Simon, Pewamo-Westphalia; Ryan Wade, Laingsburg; Tyler Brown, Faith; Jordan Terry, Lansing Christian; Dalton Trefil, Fulton; Brooks Hyble, Sacred Heart; Griffin Lewis, Morrice

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Scott Keyes

Sports Scene

For the second year in a row, the Bullock Creek girls basketball team made it all the way to the Class B semifinal round at the Breslin Center.

And for the second year in a row, the Lancers’ ultimate goal of winning a state championship came up just short.

“Maybe the third time is a charm,” said junior Halee Nieman after the Lancers 52-47 loss to Grand Rapids South Christian. “As a player, you dream about getting here once, and we have been here two years in a row. We need to get back to work and hopefully be able to make it back here again next season.”

Nieman was huge for Bullock Creek. She started the game scoring 12 of the Lancers’ first 13 points, and the Lancers pulled out to a 13-8 lead early in the second quarter. However, Nieman picked up her third foul before halftime and South Christian took advantage. Markayla Vander came off the bench and scored 11 second-quarter points and pulled down four rebounds in the quarter to give the Sailors a three-point halftime lead.

A year ago, Bullock Creek lost in overtime to a taller Powers Catholic team, 48-45. This year, Bullock Creek lost to a taller Grand Rapids South Christian team that outrebounded the Lancers, 44-25.

Once Nieman went out of the game, the momentum swung over to the Sailors.

South Christian, which went on to lose to Eaton Rapids in the Class B final, made 15 of 18 from the free-throw line in the second half and outrebounded the Lancers 23-11 in the second half. Still, Bullock Creek stayed close with 21 steals and 33 forced turnovers.

“This game felt a lot like last year’s game,” said Bullock Creek coach Justin Freeland. “We caused 33 turnovers, like we wanted to. We got out-rebounded, like we didn’t want to. And they hit key free throws down the stretch, which didn’t allow us to make a final push. In a game like that, anything can happen.”

Nieman led the Lancers with 18 points, while Hannah Heldt followed with 16. Nieman also had seven steals and six rebounds. Heldt and Ellie Juengel fouled out, while Nieman finished with four fouls. Neiman, a 5-foot-11-inch junior, was forced to the bench in the first half with three fouls.

Juengel said that as a player you leave everything out on the court in a game like this, and pride allows a team to pull through the difficult losses. “We were so close again,” she said. “I couldn’t be prouder of my team. We played a great team, but unfortunately for us we lost the game. This is only going to make us hungrier heading into next season.”

Juengel added seven points, six rebounds, and three steals for Bullock Creek, which finished the season 24-2.

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Scott Keyes

Sports Scene

Keyon Addison walked out of the locker room disappointed.

Disappointed that the Saginaw High boys basketball team had just gotten beat 80-51 in a regional semifinal game to Carman-Ainsworth.

Disappointed that the game was his last as a Trojan.

“We didn’t play our game,” Addison said. “You have to give those guys credit; they played a great game, but we didn’t play Saginaw High basketball and we got beat.”

Addison left his mark during his four years as a Trojan. He played on the varsity three of those years, during which he helped lead Saginaw to a Class A title in 2012, to the semifinal round a year ago, and to another district championship this season.

Addison finished with 19 points in his final game. He will play football for Ferris State University next fall.

“Now my focus is on getting myself ready to play football at Ferris State,” he said after the loss to the Cavaliers. “It has been a fun ride, now it’s time to focus on getting myself ready to head to Big Rapids and hopefully start as a freshman. The ride has been bittersweet.”

Saginaw coach Julian Taylor said he hopes the younger players on the team will learn from the loss heading into next year.

“It’s still hard to see a player like Keyon Addison finish his career with a game like this,” Taylor said. “We basically got beat at our own game.”

The Cavaliers came into the game wanting to press and run, but their other goal was to frustrate Trojans’ sophomore center Algevon Eichelberger, who had had 42 rebounds in his last two district games. Eichelberger finished with six points and five rebounds.

He was whistled for his second foul early in the second quarter and sat the rest of the quarter.

“We knew their big guy could give us a lot of trouble,” Carman-Ainsworth coach Jay Witham said. “We wanted to go at him, get him in foul trouble. It worked.”

Carman-Ainsworth senior Justice Green was in charge of most of the destruction, finishing with 22 points and setting up teammate Cameron Morse for most of his 23 points.

Taylor was extremely impressed by the play of Green and Morse.

Green “would leak out on shots and get downcourt for easy layups, and that’s something we didn’t see on film,” Taylor said. “That surprised us.”

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Milan has advanced into the Class B state title game with a 51-50 semifinal victory Friday over Detroit Douglas. Latin Davis had 17 points and Nick Perkins added 16 points for Milan, which has a 24-3 record. Douglas was led by DeShawn Sanders with 15 points and ended the season at 18-9.

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Benton Harbor was too much in a 69-52 victory over Cadillac on Friday in Class B semifinal action at the Breslin Center. Cortex More scored 18 points and had 11 rebounds for Benton Harbor, 16-9. Cadillac was led by Jalen Brooks with 30 points and six rebounds.

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W. Robertson Jr. had 14 points and six boards while Joevair Kennedy added 14 points and five boars to lead 27-0 Muskegon to a 63-47 victory over Mount Pleasant in Class A quarterfinal action at the Breslin Center on Friday. Mount Pleasant’s season ended at 22-5. Muskegon was up 18-9 after the first quarter, 36-17 at halftime and 48-34 after the third quarter.

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Muskegon remained undefeated at 27-0 with a 63-47 victory over Mount Pleasant in Class A semifinal action at the Breslin Center on Friday. Mount Pleasant’s season ended at 22-5. Jaleel Hogan led Mount Pleasant with 14 points and 10 rebounds while Aaron Leasher had six points and eight boards. Muskegon was up 18-9 after the first quarter 36-17 at halftime and 48-34 after the third quarter. Muskegon had a 15-13 advantage in the fourth.

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Jake Herremans of Rockford and Jackson Maxwell of Swartz Creek were champion divers in Divisions 1 and 2, respectively, while Xinghao Wang of Grand Ledge won the Division 2 100-yard breaststroke to lead the area in the boys’ state swimming and diving championships.

DIVISION 1 AT SAGINAW VALLEY STATE UNIVERSITY

Brother Rice claimed the Division 1 state title with 345 points compared to 202 for Livonia Stevenson.

Rockford was 10th with 81 points. The Rams were led by Herremans, who was first in the one-meter dive. Shane Phillips was eighth.

The 200-yard medley relay team of Craig Wasberg, David Dewberger, Timmer Hoffmeister, and Chris Lemoine was sixth with a time of 1:36.87.

“We had a great season, but not a great state meet,” said Rockford coach Tom Parks. “Our divers did well, and we had a few really good performances, but not our best. We disqualified a relay which really hurt us. I hate to say it, but it was pretty obvious it was not a great call by the official. Regardless, I’m very proud of my team and all their hard work.”

DIVISION 2 AT EASTERN MICHIGAN UNIVERSITY

Birmingham Seaholm won the Division 2 title with 357.5 points, finishing ahead of Dexter with 203. Midland Dow was ninth at 122.5, Grand Ledge 11th at 68, Okemos 12th at 67, Heritage 13th at 55, and Waverly-Lansing Catholic 14th at 53. Jackson Maxwell scored all of Swartz Creek’s 20 points by winning the one-meter dive. Xinghao Wang of Grand Ledge was first in the 100-yard breaststroke in 55.77 seconds, while Logan Yearham and Tyler Miller of Heritage were fourth in 58.07 and sixth in 59.74, respectively.

Top local performances also included Ben Rentz taking fourth for Waverly-Lansing Catholic in the 200-yard freestyle in 1:41.83. Nehemiah Mork was fourth for Midland Dow in the 500-yard freestyle, while Jake Seeterlin of Okemos was ninth. Wang was third in the 100-yard butterfly in 50.60 seconds and Ian Polland of Okemos ninth in 51.41 seconds.

Midland Dow placed second and seventh in the 100-yard freestyle, with Mork clocking a time of 46.47 seconds and Zach Hoffman finishing in 46.94 seconds.

Rentz of Waverly-Lansing Catholic finished third in the 500-yard freestyle in 4:37.79.

Midland Dow was sixth in the 200-yard freestyle relay with the foursome of Mork, Hoffman, Nick Pixton, and Nick Smith.

The Dow 400-yard freestyle relay team of Mork, Hoffman, Ricky Knoff, Smith finished eighth in 3:14.80.

“We broke 11 school records and placed a program-best 11th,” said Grand Ledge coach Ian Townsend. “We took 11 swimmers and divers to states from a team with 16 guys and won the program’s first ever CAAC Blue Conference championship.

“Definitely Xinghao’s state title swim had to be the most impressive swim of the weekend. His time is sixth fastest in MHSAA history and currently 12th nationally this season.

“Our relays performed remarkably well this year, and that culminated with our 200 medley relay and 400 free relay becoming the first two relays in school history to place top 16 at the state meet. Senior diver Rob Wilson placed 12th in that event and made remarkable strides this season. It was a great season overall with lots of program-first performances.”

Okemos “finished the season very well with a share in our seventh CAAC Blue title as well as a high finish at the state meet. We scored two relays and had six individual scoring swims in the top 16,” said Okemos coach Patrick Saucedo. “Our two relays, 200 medley and 400 free, were our fastest of the season by a lot. It was great to see those four guys bring it together one last time.

“We pretty much knew our standings going in and thought our performances and placings were pretty close to where we expected to end up. It was a very successful season. This season I had most individual state swims between all of my other years coaching.”

DIVISION 3 AT HOLLAND AQUATIC CENTER

Cranbrook Kingswood won the Division 3 meet with 297 points over Chelsea with 273.33. Ionia was 11th at 69, John Glenn 17th at 29, St. Johns and Mason tied for 20th at 24. Alma finished 23rd with 22 points, Haslett 27th with eight, Ovid-Elsie 28th with six, and DeWitt 33rd with one.

Logan Carson of John Glenn was fifth in the 50-yard freestyle.

Jared Gregory of St. Johns was fourth in the one-meter dive with 400.9 points. Brevan Bender of Alma was fourth in the 100-yard butterfly and Corbin Shuler of Mason eighth. Skyler Fish of Ionia was fifth in the 100-yard freestyle and second in the 100-yard backstroke for Ionia.

“We were very pleased with the final outcome of our season,” said St. Johns coach Kim Brewbaker. “The local paper had picked us to finish in fourth place and we were third in the final standings. This season we beat a couple of teams that had beaten us last season, and one of our losses was a one-point loss. Our guys swam faster than last season, and we had a fantastic conference meet.

“We finished about where we thought we would. We hoped to place in the top 20 at the Division 3 state meet, and that’s where we ended up. Our guys turned in our fastest times of the season in the events we qualified in, but they weren’t fast enough to make the top 16 in most of our entries.”

Marshall Gallt was Ovid-Elsie’s only qualifier, and he placed 15th in the 200 IM and 14th in the 100 fly.

“He had been at states the last two years and was an alternate for finals both years,” said Ovid-Elsie coach Karl Dahlke. “This year he qualified for finals in both his events by dropping 6.28 seconds in the IM and 2.39 seconds in the fly. Both set our school records. We hit his taper perfectly.”

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Lexi Gussert leaves it all on the court

Meet the 2013-14 Sports Scene Dream Team

BC falls is semis for second year in row

Keyon Addison leaves his mark at Saginaw High

Milan advances to Class B title game

Benton Harbor advances to title game in Class B

Bloomfield Hills in state title games

Muskegon ends Mount Pleasant’s season

Mount Pleasant’s basketball season ends against Muskegon

Area swimmers and diver have memorable meets at state finals